City shuts down popular Cape Coral restaurant

A popular Cape Coral restaurant was shut down after an irrigation line was found hooked up to water supplies throughout the building.

The city forced Empire Buffet on Del Prado Boulevard to close its doors.

"I can't believe it," customer Barbara Aprile said.

We watched Saturday as one customer after another walked up to Empire Buffet to find locked doors.

"I said 'maybe they just had one day closing or I came early for dinner? I don't know.' So, I walked around here and saw all of this, and I'm very disappointed," Aprile said.

The city closed the restaurant down immediately on Monday after Cape Coral inspectors found the restrooms and kitchen sink were using reclaimed irrigation water.

"Irrigating water! Wonderful. And we liked to eat here," Aprile said.

The city originally came to the popular restaurant to fix a leak. But when they dug up the pipes, they found an irrigation line stemming from a city pipe all the way into the restaurant.

According to the owner, it's only linked to the cold water line. It's also only used in the restroom and in a kitchen sink that Nancy Ming Xiao, the owner of Empire Buffet, says is solely used for mop water.

"I don't know who did it, but it happened," Xiao said.

This is the first time in 14 years the owner ever heard of the problem.

"It's a surprise for me. He come to me, he says what's this? I have no idea. You know, I'm working there all the time I don't know what the line go through the building. I have no idea, totally out of my mind," Xiao told us.

Now with five days of locked doors, the owners says she's losing a lot of business.

"Oh yeah, hurting a lot. Hurting a lot of business. I've been almost not working for five days. I need to get my business back," Xiao said.

We were shown paperwork proving the problem has been fixed and the lines were flushed.

"Everything is done by Wednesday already. We are just waiting for the inspection," Xiao said.

Now, customers are just waiting for the doors to re-open.

"I would consider coming back and supporting them, yes." Aprile said.

The restaurant is expected to reopen sometime next week -- pending an inspection through the city.